ROCKFORD — Rockford School District leaders want to reduce the number of early-childhood centers and elementary schools by at least seven, from 35 to 28, and they are about to present three options for doing so for a public vetting.

Several parents expressed extreme curiosity in the district’s plans as they waited to pick up their kids Friday at Nelson Elementary School, whose fate varies in the plans. In one, it stays open and gets additions and renovations. In the others, it’s demolished and a new school will replace it in the area.

A new school sounds great to Jason Williams, but he’s got a lot questions. His twin daughters are kindergartners at Nelson.

“If they built a school, I don’t think I’d have a real problem with that,” he said. “This building is pretty old. ... It would depend on where they were going to build it and whether the class sizes would be getting bigger. I don’t have a problem with bigger schools, but I do have a problem with how big some of the classes are already.”

Plans B and C call for construction of schools. In Plan B, a school would be built in the area of Kishwaukee and Nelson schools. In Plan C, a new school would replace Kishwaukee and Nelson, and another school would be built to serve students in Cherry Valley.

Why now

The effort is not motivated by finances or to restructure staff, school officials said, but rather to adjust schools to improve education and avoid costly school repairs. The district also hopes to gain considerable savings by getting rid of buildings that are costly to run.

The three plans represent sweeping changes to the district’s facilities master plan and are the product of extensive analysis of district properties, Superintendent Ehren Jarrett said.

“We really came to some conclusions about what we think we needed to do, not just to fix up the schools we have, but what do we need as a community moving forward to have schools where all children will thrive in those learning environments,” he said.

“That led to, do we continue down the pathway of just fixing up the schools we have or do we chart a new course, particularly with our elementary schools, to see if there are ways we can create a better footprint and improve the quality of education for all students.”

Page 2 of 3 - The proposed closings would not result in staff cuts or teacher layoffs because the number of students in the district is expected to stay the same. Teachers and staff at closed schools would move to one of the remaining 28.

“The superintendent has made a very strong commitment to avoid reductions in staff,” said Paul Goddard, vice president of Rockford’s teachers union. “He’s demonstrated that the past three years with no (teacher layoffs). ... From everything we’ve seen, this helps address excess capacity in buildings.”

District leaders hope to get a feel for which of three plans garner the most support through a series of community meetings.

The Rockford School Board plans to adopt one of the plans at its June 24 meeting.

District leaders adopted a new set of guiding principles last week— such as placing 475 to 633 students at each elementary school and having students attend schools near where they live. They are now ready to adopt a 10-year facilities master plan for 2015-25 based on those principles.

No changes would take place in the 2014-15 school year. Once the board adopts a plan, leaders will start working on a way to implement it. Changes would be phased in.

A Facilities Task Force of School Board members, district staff members, teachers and community members was formed in September and met regularly to develop the guiding principles.

Paying for it

Each plan would cost about $250 million, money the district already has set aside for its Better Schools initiative. The district has spent about $50 million of it in the past year on additions and improvements at about 20 schools.

None of the three plans would require a tax increase, district leaders said. More than half of the money is coming from the sale of $139 million in general obligation bonds that voters approved in November 2012.

At that time, officials promised to “touch every school” with $211 million that they planned to spend on improvements in the next 10 years. Decisions about closing or building schools had not been made then.

Montessori, gifted

In each of the plans, Summerdale and Fairview would remain early-childhood centers, and Lathrop and Nashold elementaries would become early-childhood centers.

Also in the three plans, the Renaissance Gifted program would move from Washington School to the home of the Maria Montessori program, 4704 N. Rockton Ave., creating a gifted campus on the far northwest side.